


Bitter Triumph

by 425599167



Series: Truth In Legends [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, canon fusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 00:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7460181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/425599167/pseuds/425599167
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While being held in a prison of the First Order, Rey gets a visitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bitter Triumph

_Feel the Force_ , thought Rey, extending her senses beyond the walls of the cell. _Feel the energy flowing through the life on this base._

It wasn’t easy to concentrate. Every second stuck in this base was one second closer to another confrontation with Kylo Ren. Even if he was on the other side of the First Order's territory, it was only a matter of time before he showed up.

Escape had quickly proved impossible. Her lightsaber and a few other tools had been confiscated, and this damn cell had been expertly built. The walls, floor, and ceiling were completely featureless aside from a cot welded to the wall, and the plumbing. No windows, plus she was pretty sure she was underground. And the only guards were a group of combat droids, so no mind tricks would her her out if she could talk through the thick metal door. Even if it was unlocked, it looked so heavy she probably wouldn’t be even able to push it open on her own, either with her body or the Force.

Not that that had stopped her. Since she couldn’t get out using physical means, she’d had to rely on the Force. For several hours now, she’d been meditating, each session expanding her view of the facility a bit more. It wasn’t huge, though she doubted, or rather feared, that the First Order had anything else capable of measuring up to Starkiller Base.

Through the Force, she could feel the minds of the hundred of stormtroopers and operations personnel patrolling the base and the surrounding area. All of them free of doubt. All completely obsessed with serving their superiors. All completely unlike Finn on the surface, but with some humanity buried within. She'd thought perhaps she could influence them enough to release her, or to not report her capture, but it wasn’t working.

But there was something else out there now, something new. She’d learned early on the Force could expand one’s senses, to let you observe things you couldn’t seen with your eyes. Rey had sensed the smattering of wildlife on his rocky moon the first few times she’d meditated, but none of those life forms were like this.

Something just showed up in the base, and practically blinded Rey. As she focused again, she could make out the stormtroopers, feelings their energy, their will, as they moved to act.

One by one, they were fading. In a path that was bringing the newcomer closer and closer to her cell. It took her a moment to realize that she could faintly hear the weapons fire in the distance, getting closer each second.

The guard droid gots several shots off before Rey heard the sound of mechanical arms clattering to the ground, followed by a series of loud crashes.

Most likely the droids themselves. In several pieces.

It couldn’t be Kylo Ren, the presence was too bright, and even he wouldn’t run around a base cutting down his own troops. Probably. It was more similar to Luke, though she could tell it wasn’t the same.

So focused on sensing through the Force, Rey jumped slightly at the sound of several knocks on the door. She stepped closer, cautious, getting near enough to hear someone give a muffled instruction to stand to the side.

The second she complied and got out of the way, a violet lightsaber blade pierced the door, slowly moving through the metal, leaving a trail of glowing slag as the blade cut a circular hole large enough for a grown human to comfortably step through.

Metal ground against metal as the round piece slid out of the cell door’s bulk, falling with so much energy the floor of the cell cracked apart.

Though the cloud of metal fumes and concrete dust, her rescuer walked through the hole, clad in a large, dark blue cloak over light body armor.

“Come on,” said the woman, turning around to the entrance and beckoning for Rey to follow, “We should get out of here before more First Order troops arrive.”

“Who are you?” asked Rey.

The unknown figure glanced towards Rey, then reached up and pulled the hood of the cloak back. A woman in her fifties, with red-gold hair streaked with grey, and dark green eyes.

She looked eerily familiar.

And very glad to see Rey, unfazed by the captive's confusion.

“My name’s Mara Jade, I’m here to rescue you. Now let's go, these fumes can't be good for our health,” she said, waving the smoke from her face, just then noticing Rey had ripped some cloth from her detached sleeves and was breathing through it, dashing past Mara and shoving the crude filter into her pocket once free of the cell.

Surveying the environment, she found herself unexpectedly disoriented, her explorations of the base through the Force not having revealed any actual exit, so she still didn't know where to go until Mara took her hand and started pulling the reluctant young woman down a corridor to a natural chasm with a walkway running across it.

"What are you- stop struggling, I'm trying to help!" yelled Mara.

"Please, _let go of my hand,_ " said Rey, as Mara immediately loosened her grip, crossing her arms as she watched Rey take the lead.

"Okay, I get the whole self-reliance schtick, but you have no idea where you're going."

"I'll figure it out," replied Rey, leaving Mara looking utterly unimpressed, and a bit concerned.

"You don't think much past the immediate problem, do you?"

"I know how to survive in bad situation, and I know how to fight. It worked out fine for me on Jakku."

The mention of that desert planet completely shifted Mara's mood, from an amused, slightly scolding expression to sadness, keeping pace with Rey but avoiding looking at her.

“You should never have been in that situation to begin with. What kind of mother would...” she muttered bitterly to herself, turning around when she realized Rey had stopped dead in her tracks.

“You know my mother?” asked Rey, watching closely as Mara’s face cycled through several expressions: guilt, regret, worry, a dozen different forms of sadness.

And then, _glee_.

Mara’s eyes lit up excitedly as she held her saber with both hands and raised it to her upper body, the bright violet light casting dramatic shadows across her face.

“No, Rey. **_I_** am your mother.”

Rey's heart skipped a beat as she stood there, frozen, barely able to breath as memories of being left on Jakku bubbled to the surface, seeing a younger Mara arguing with Unkar Plutt, hugging Rey one last time, and then flying away. The only time she’d felt something this intense was when she’d picked up her lightsaber for the first time.

Then, Mara burst out laughing.

“Oh, wow, I cannot _wait_ to tell Farmboy I said that! He is going to laaaugghhh...eugh, or have traumatic flashbacks to getting his hand cut off...maybe I won’t tell him. Nope, never mind, I’m telling him, it’s too good to pass up.”

“ _You’re_ my mother?”

“Um, _yes_. Isn’t it obvious? Don't you recognize me?” asked Mara, disappointed by the lack of recognition, pointing at her own face. “Besides the coloring and me being old, you look just like me.”

Pointing out the resemblance certainly made it easier for Rey to see, and all the more disappointingly abrupt.

This whole situation felt wrong.

"Can we please get moving?" said Rey, moving past Mara to look for a map, an indicator of where they were, anything to direct her out of this place faster.

"What's your hurry?"

“Kylo Ren is probably on his way, and he nearly killed me and Finn the last time we fought. If we don’t get out of here before he arrives-”

“Oh, you fought Ben? Did he cry? I bet you made him cry,” said Mara proudly. “Rey, sweetheart, I know you’re worried, but I have things under control. There is no way my little shit of a nephew is going to kill _me_. Besides, we won’t be here much longer. Follow me.”

“I can’t leave yet, the First Order has my lightsaber-”

“You mean this?” asked Mara, pressing the activation button on a saber held in her off-hand, gently waving around its bright blue blade, then switching it off and handing it to Rey before walking away purposefully. “That is _my_ lightsaber, actually, though I trust you with it until you make your own. For you, I’m thinking 'lightsaber pike'.”

Without any time to process all this, Rey reluctantly followed behind Mara.

They'd barely gotten ten steps when a squad of stormtroopers appeared around a corner, guns raised to take them down. Rey held up her lightsaber, expecting a difficult fight, only for Mara to absentmindedly wave out one hand, sending them all flying back and slamming into the wall. Then, she returned to navigating their way out, the encounter no more of an issue than batting away an insect. One trooper managed to get up, take aim and get several shots off, only for Mara to deflect them with her saber, exerting no more effort than before. In fact, not only did she deflect the shots, she knocked them back at the correct angle to hit between the plates of the stormtrooper’s elbow and knees, causing her to drop her gun as she held her wounded arm, groaning and unable to chase after them.

“How did I get in here?” wondered Mara, ignoring the trooper's cries of pain. “This place’s layout is a mess. And where are the safety railings on these walkways? Ah, here we go,” she said, spotting a wrecked door and heading for it.

Rey followed her, lagging behind slightly as she looked around in a mix of awe and horror as she realized Mara had oriented herself by following the swathe of destruction she had carved on her way in. The walls were dotted with the scorch marks of blaster bolt impacts, stormtroopers were lying unconscious or dead all over the place, and every doorway they walked through had been sliced apart with a lightsaber, if not outright ripped off its frame. The various panels and screens lining the walls had all suffered a similar fate, apparently just because they were there.

As they walked past a lone intact computer screen, Mara sliced it in half for the sake of thoroughness, nodding with satisfaction at the smoking piece of equipment.

Shortly after that, they came to an access ladder leading to the surface, the howling of wind above the entrance audible on account of the hatch which would normally block it having been cut into several pieces a few minutes prior.

"How far away is your ship?" asked Rey as she climbed into the open air, surveying the rocky, misty terrain of this nameless, backwater planet, structures of the base looming behind her, a First Order banner flapping in the breeze.

“It's close. Don’t worry, we’ll be out of here long before Crylo Ren or whatever he calls himself shows up,” Mara said reassuringly, tapping keys on her wristband, transmitting commands.

Over the horizon, a ship flew towards the base. Rey didn’t recognize the exact model, but it looked imperial-made. New ships always excited her, and in spite of how stressful and, frankly, weird the past few minutes had been, getting a look at an unfamiliar piece of engineering would be a welcome distraction about now.

That anticipation made the sight of the shuttle taking a nose-dive into the heart of the First Order outpost even more disorienting, the spectacle of the impact and explosion freaking Rey out even more.

“What- how- that was your ship! Wasn’t it? Why did it crash?!”

“It was. Now, it’s wreckage. Wreckage with Empire of the Hand equipment in it, strewn across what’s left of a First Order facility.”

“But, _why?_ ”

“Because the First Order’s knee-jerk reaction will be that the Empire of the Hand is undermining them. Which, by astonishing coincidence, is actually what’s going on here.”

“The Empire of What?”

“Empire of the Hand. I got recruited to find you and Luke.”

“Why?” ask Rey, increasingly fed up with this woman who was telling her she was her mother and they needed to escape and the ship exploded and she can fling around stormtroopers like it’s nothing everything is wrecked they have no means of leaving the planet and Rey had no idea what was happening _she just wanted to get away_.

“You’ve gotten the attention of the First Order, which naturally got the attention of Thrawn, because that guy has to micromanage every single thing that happens anywhere, so I was sent to bring you two in so you can be used as a bargaining chip when dealing with Snoke, or something, I don’t really care, I just wanted to find you,” explained Mara. “And If needing to resolve this whole fiasco gives Thrawn a headache, it’ll all have been worth it. It's about time he learned he’s not the only person in the galaxy who can strategize.”

“Who’s Thrawn?”

“Blue prick who uses needlessly complicated plans. I’ll explain later. Right now, we need to take advantage of the chaos and steal a hyperspace capable ship.”

“I’ve tried flying First Order craft. Their controls aren’t like anything I’ve flown before, we need a pilot.”

“You’ve got one. Oh, hold on, here we go,” she said as she pulled out a beeping communicator.

Switching it on projected the head and shoulders of a serious, military-looking man. He was quite old, but still clearly fit, and spoke gruffly while working hard to conceal his frustration. And he had the most impressive mustache Rey had ever scene.

“Yeah?” asked Mara in the most insulting tone of voice possible.

“Emperor’s Hand, report. What is your status?” he said. “You’ve deviated from your assignment, what are you doing?”

“Easy there, Gil, no need to worry. It’s just that I’ve gone and decided I don’t care about you, what you want, or our deal!" she said mockingly, taking in every subtle twinge of anger in Pellaeon's oh-so-professional face. "That report clear enough for you, you stupid punk bitch?”

The man’s eyes narrowed, brushing off the insult and studying Jade intently.

“If you renege our agreement now, nothing will prevent General Leia from being targeted by our forces.”

“Right, because Thrawn has _never_ gone back on a deal he’s made with me. I ought to trust him more,” said Mara with a wry grin, then glaring down at the hologram, speaking with a tone of voice that made Rey shiver. “Leia can handle herself. If anything, you’re the ones who need protection from her. _And from me_.”

“You were captured by the First Order once already, and if you do this, we won’t aid you again. You must realize the consequences of this defiance.”

“More than you do, actually. Because believe it or not, your master doesn’t know everything. ‘Emperor’s Hand’ out,” she finished as she chucked the comm into one of the base’s air intake vents.

Once the conversation ended, Rey, uncomprehending of who that was or what was happening in general, began dashing around, searching the nearby landing pad for something spaceworthy they could fly out of here.

"Rey! That'll do," said Mara, pointing to a First Order Special Forces TIE.  

Rey ran towards the fighter and paused beneath it, hunched over and catching her breath, Mara coming to a halt behind her, confused by the sudden stop.

Confused until Rey spun around and started screaming at her.

"What is _WRONG_  with you!?" she yelled, tears streaming down her face, fists balled up at her sids as she was shaking with anger. "You abandoned me! WHY? And now you show up to save my life, acting like it's fun? Like being gone was just a joke!?" Rey stopped herself when she finally looked up and saw Mara crying almost as much as she was.

Mara stepped forward, slowly enough that Rey could move away if she really wanted, and hugged her daughter, who, with some reticence, returned the embrace. They held on to each other in silence for a moment in the chill air, tears drying, until Mara worked up the nerve to speak.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come back. There was a battle to be fought, and I, I didn’t think hard enough about what could happen if I lost.”

The two then broke apart from each other abruptly as they both noticed the sound of engine noise filling the air, each scanning the sky for the source, but unable to see through the cloud layer. By now, Rey knew to listen carefully for approaching ships; whatever was coming wasn’t a TIE, but it’s pitch wasn’t that of a Resistance ship, either.

“Scimitar assault bombers,” said Mara. “I defied the Grand Admiral, now he’s cut his losses and is sending people to kill us. And also destroying all evidence of his empire’s involvement here. Huh. Guess he hasn’t lost his edge. I wonder how far behind me they were...It’s almost as if he didn’t trust me,” she said dryly.

Tension filled the cockpit as the two rushed inside the TIE and buckled in, the sound of the bombers growing louder and louder as the ship's engines warmed up. Rey caught Mara glancing back at her during the start-up sequence, looking like she was about to speak, but neither of them had any idea what to say now.

The fighter flew up into the atmosphere, soaring above from the bombers' attack profile as the base was annihilated beneath them in a bombardment of thermal detonators, the ship's interior completely silent as they escaped the planet's gravity well and jumped to hyperspace.

**Author's Note:**

> This was derived from [this atrocious fanart](http://425599167.tumblr.com/post/139336375453/check-out-your-hair-game-you-know-it-to-be-true) I made months ago, though with a few changes. Because dammit, I need Mara Jade to be Rey's mom.
> 
> Mara or not, this is kind of how I imagine Rey meeting her mother. The stuff with Luke is going to be big and dramatic, especially assuming he's her father, and what little we've seen of him had tons of build up. Now, with her mom, who was presumably the one who left her on Jakku in the first place, it's just awkward, weird, and uncomfortable, because what should you feel in that situation? Anger at being abandoned? Joy at being reunited? Forgiving with the knowledge her mother missed her too? Neither of them knows.
> 
> Especially since one of Rey's key emotional developments in TFA was accepting the fact that whoever left her wasn't returning, and now, there she is, come to her rescue. It can't be easy for her, even if it's what she's always wanted.
> 
> But don't ask me how a guy with blonde hair and blue eyes, and a woman with red hair and green eyes, produced a child with brown hair and brown eyes. Pretty sure that's not possible, but I don't care.


End file.
